Scamwatch: Golden Nugget Invest Defaults

As happens with all such schemes, GNI has just issued a story to explain & justify their defaulting on all clients’ funds.

GNI Newsletter March 9th. 2010

Greetings to the Most Loyal GNI Friends, Family & Associates and; Nemesis:

As I have mentioned in the forum, I have spent the last few days in Northern Cyprus trying desperately to obtain those funds which belong to us – members and principals of Goldnuggetinvest.com.

Besides myself, I have been privileged to be assisted by Counsel (one of our attorneys) to not just make a strong presence on behalf of some faceless arbitrage project; indeed, but to help me place a face on the thousands of loyal GNI Customers who have (rightfully or not) depended on our presence and weekly payments to:

1. pay the rent or mortgage,
2. pay doctor’s bills,
3. pay for a family member’s schooling,
4. retire in a manner that is consistent with the years of service provided to their employer,
5. take a well-deserved vacation with someone special or
6. have some peace of mind in these troublesome times.

Despite our best efforts, and monumental efforts were made by all concerned, we could not get the directors, regulators or oversight administrators to relent. There were several tactics employed, a couple of which were most creative, but it was of no use. We thought we may have a foot in the door, only to have it cut off. What I can say is we tried damn it….we tried our hardest; but we could not overcome this hurdle.

Without this income, we go in reverse. We have had suggestions, offers which included members giving us funds, members willing to delay the taking of payments, partial payments, the entire spectrum of suggestions; the reality is, however, these suggestions amount to a band-aid when in fact a tourniquet is called for.

I must, for the sake of the sanity of myself and my family, the GNI Team Members, the Principals and our most trusted customers, shut down Goldnuggetinvest.com effective immediately and permanently. This decision will not be reversed.

Thank you from my heart!

With kind regards,
Robert and the GNI Team

Scamwatch: Automated Trading Services

Recently a new ‘flavour’ of sports arbitrage scam has emerged: companies claiming to have robots that will execute your bets on your behalf.

I know, it sounds silly when it’s put like that. It’s hard, without laughing, to imagine robots sitting at a desk placing bets. Although this image is a parody, you’d do well to keep it in mind when confronted with any person, company or website that tells you they have an automated betting solution…

The 2 most prominent outfits currently operating this scam are called sportarbs.com and quartadimensia.com

Both are classic Ponzi schemes.

In this case they are using the lure of sports arbitrage with the idea of ‘automatic betting’ to create the dream of ‘automatic risk free profits’. This appeals to people’s greed and willingness to believe.

The simple fact is that bookmakers impose limits on individual accounts; in the vast majority of cases the largest bet any single account can place will be $1000; given this, how do you think they are able to place bets for multiple users if they are using just one or even a few in-house accounts?

Think about the funds administration issues..

If you invest $1000 then how do they allocate this money amongst the bookmakers to ensure that there are funds available for the trades you wish to place? Indeed, once the $1000 has been allocated across several accounts, it becomes impossible for you to place a $1000 trade…

These are just a couple of glaring issues; there are many more…

Think about why they need YOUR MONEY if they have a robot that can place arbs all day and night..

Why would they be happy with just a 25% or 30% share in the profits when they could have 100% ?

Why is your money, which costs them 70% or 75% of the profit, more attractive to them than a bank loan which would cost them just 10% over a year?

The sites and their marketing is well-thought out and I expect that it is quite convincing to anyone who has little or no experience with sports arbitrage. However, there is no doubt that their true business model is that of a Ponzi scheme.